U18s: Man Utd v Liverpool

Adnan

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Kick off at 11.30 am.



Vitek (GK), Pye, Fredricson, Jackson, Jurado, McAllister, Mainoo, Sharpe, Mather, Garnacho, Norkett.

Subs: Murray, Hanbury, Bennett, Oyedele, Gore.
 

Thiagoal

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1-0 Liverpool. Not many players on the 18’s that stand out to me.. any players to look out for?
 

Mickson

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United won't win many games with this team I think. Need to fill in with some players, maybe Hansen, Kambwala and one attacker.

1-0 Liverpool. Not many players on the 18’s that stand out to me.. any players to look out for?
Vitek in goal, Pye at left-back, Jurado at right-back and Garnacho on left wing.
 

SmashedHombre

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20 minutes in and I don't think we've strung two passes together. I doubt Liverpool will have an easier game all season if we keep playing like this.
 

SmashedHombre

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2-0 to Liverpool, who are yet to look like they're not just having a kick about in the park. We've been atrocious.
 

Thiagoal

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2-0 to Liverpool, who are yet to look like they're not just having a kick about in the park. We've been atrocious.
Going to be a very longer season for 18’s this year. Not seen a United team this poor for a long time
 

Adnan

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We've looked better in the last 10 minutes. The #8 (Mainoo) looks a very good player for us.
 

diarm

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Garnacho needs a bit of a bollocking at half time. Needs to play with his head up a bit more and to look for his teammates.
 

SmashedHombre

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Garnacho needs a bit of a bollocking at half time. Needs to play with his head up a bit more and to look for his teammates.
He seems frustrated tbh. Like he's trying to do it all himself. Somehow looks our best and worst player atm Probably misses playing with Hansen, McNeil, Hoogewerf, Iqbal, Forson, Savage etc because this lot look incredibly disjointed right now. Stil early days, of course.
 

Bertie Wooster

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The most outclassed I've seen the U18 look for some time (I didn't see the City game, which sounded one sided as well).

As others have said, it certainly doesn't look a strong group so far. I know they're young and there's some decent ones not playing, and it's been a tough first couple of games fixture wise, but none of the players so far have shown many attributes or ability that suggest strong potential to kick on.
 

Adnan

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Liverpool seem to have a physical advantage over our players so I'm not surprised they've been the better side. But tests like this are good for the lads.
 

Ali Dia

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This is the first post Brexit group. I know there are still previous foreign signings in the lineup but they are the ones that have been held back. Our previous strategy was heavily based on getting in top 16 year olds from around Europe. I’d say there’ll be a knock on this season and we will be going after lots more UK youth players for pretty big money I’d imagine. We will be buying young players from abroad for the u23s and loaning purposes from now on or waiting for contracts to expire at 18 and jumping in there?

Is there any other way around this? Has anyone heard anything about a new strategy?
 
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Bigsid

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This is the first post Brexit group. I know there are still previous foreign signings in the lineup but they are the ones that have been held back. Our previous strategy was heavily based on getting in top 16 year olds from around Europe. I’d say there’ll be a knock on this season and we will be going after lots more UK youth players for pretty big money I’d imagine. We will be buying young players from abroad for the u23s and loaning purposes from now on?

Is there any way around this? Has anyone heard anything about a new strategy?
Same for all groups Don't we pride ourselves on developing our own anymore as that's more impressive than buying in all the time
 

Adnan

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First time I've seen Kobbie Mainoo play and he looks a very good talent. Only turned 16 in April and has displayed a very high technical level in midfield.
 

SmashedHombre

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THat might just be the worst 5 minute passage of play I have ever seen. 3-0 Liverpool
 

AjaxCunian

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He seems frustrated tbh. Like he's trying to do it all himself. Somehow looks our best and worst player atm Probably misses playing with Hansen, McNeil, Hoogewerf, Iqbal, Forson, Savage etc because this lot look incredibly disjointed right now. Stil early days, of course.
Have all those players moved up?
 

Bertie Wooster

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It's rare that I can't take any positives from a youth match - where the results matter less than individual ability / development - but this has been awful and none of the new players to the U18's have shown much potential.

I know there's some reasons - they're young, the best players who could feature have, rightly, been promoted, etc - but it looks a poor group this time around. If they could add the missing Hansen and Kambwala then that would help of course but, individually, I'm not seeing many promising attributes in any of the new players that suggest they're ones to look out for.
 

SmashedHombre

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Suspect the ref blew a little early there just to put us all out of our misery. This season is going to be rough.
 

Bigsid

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Technically we look too poor to play out from the back and don't seem comfortable in possession. Shouts from sidelines seemed to be work harder rather than look after the ball.
 

limerickcitykid

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We’ve been thumped bad plenty before and been dominated physicality, particularly a number of encounters against City. But there has always been a clear display of talent even while getting destroyed. There was none of that today though.

It’s going to be a long ol’ season for them. Only one signing and the manager was moved to be an assistant for the u23s. Is that even a promotion? Just a couple years ago we had Butt saying u18s was most important and virtually ignoring the u23s. Now we’re moving the u18s coach to be an assistant for the u23s and have almost ignored the u18s. It’s like we’re only capable of running one age group at a time.
 

Adnan

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We were second best to a Liverpool team that was clearly physically superior to us. But most of the goals we conceded today were due to us trying to play out of defence into midfield. So if we can improve upon that aspect of the game, (which is the job of Travis Binnion) then the improvement will be ten fold. There was also extenuating circumstances as explained below by @jb8521


I'm also gonna disagree with many in here and say that Kobbie Mainoo looked good and displayed a pretty high level of touch and technique on a number of occassions against a physically superior side. I think the young Ghanaian/Englishman is one to watch and may have been deployed in a unfamiliar deeper role due to injury/suspension, because I've seen him listed as a attacking midfielder in prior games.
 

Bertie Wooster

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We were second best to a Liverpool team that was clearly physically superior to us. But most of the goals we conceded today were due to us trying to play out of defence into midfield. So if we can improve upon that aspect of the game, (which is the job of Travis Binnion) then the improvement will be ten fold. There was also extenuating circumstances as explained below by @jb8521


I'm also gonna disagree with many in here and say that Kobbie Mainoo looked good and displayed a pretty high level of touch and technique on a number of occassions against a physically superior side. I think the young Ghanaian/Englishman is one to watch and may have been deployed in a unfamiliar deeper role due to injury/suspension, because I've seen him listed as a attacking midfielder in prior games.
Yeah, fair point about Mainoo. He looked decent in his cameos last season and showed some touches today.

TBF to others on the thread, including me, the point about the missing players, and inexperience of today's team, has been acknowledged as a factor. Although the long list you included really does highlight just how much stronger today's line up could have been. It's not so much the quality of all U18's at the club that's the problem - it's the ones currently available for U18 selection that look pretty average.
 

Mickson

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We were second best to a Liverpool team that was clearly physically superior to us. But most of the goals we conceded today were due to us trying to play out of defence into midfield. So if we can improve upon that aspect of the game, (which is the job of Travis Binnion) then the improvement will be ten fold. There was also extenuating circumstances as explained below by @jb8521


I'm also gonna disagree with many in here and say that Kobbie Mainoo looked good and displayed a pretty high level of touch and technique on a number of occassions against a physically superior side. I think the young Ghanaian/Englishman is one to watch and may have been deployed in a unfamiliar deeper role due to injury/suspension, because I've seen him listed as a attacking midfielder in prior games.
And Liverpool was without Harvey Elliott...well you get the point. It's no excuse really, none of the best U18 players play for Liverpool. City, Chelsea etc. There were some of the explanations but we all could see that some of these players are not as good as the ones we brought in last season, and that is okay. Some generations are better than others. I just don't buy into all of the explanations, this team will find it tough this season, no doubt, and that is due to less talented players. We have never played our best U18s. Hannibal, Shoretire etc never played last season and we were still one of the best in the country.
 

Bertie Wooster

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And Liverpool was without Harvey Elliott...well you get the point. It's no excuse really, none of the best U18 players play for Liverpool. City, Chelsea etc. There were some of the explanations but we all could see that some of these players are not as good as the ones we brought in last season, and that is okay. Some generations are better than others. I just don't buy into all of the explanations, this team will find it tough this season, no doubt, and that is due to less talented players. We have never played our best U18s. Hannibal, Shoretire etc never played last season and we were still one of the best in the country.
Yep, that's also some very valid points.

We rarely pick our best U18 team as some are always promoted to the U23's or injured. We just usually have a better standard of next generation coming through to fill the gaps from the younger age groups.

This group looks poorer than normal once you, as usual, promote the most promising ones up to the U23's. But hopefully some of those who may feature regularly - like Hansen, Kambwala, Bennett, Ennis, etc - might make some difference when they're fit and available.
 

Adnan

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And Liverpool was without Harvey Elliott...well you get the point. It's no excuse really, none of the best U18 players play for Liverpool. City, Chelsea etc. There were some of the explanations but we all could see that some of these players are not as good as the ones we brought in last season, and that is okay. Some generations are better than others. I just don't buy into all of the explanations, this team will find it tough this season, no doubt, and that is due to less talented players. We have never played our best U18s. Hannibal, Shoretire etc never played last season and we were still one of the best in the country.
This team may well find it tough this season, but will it matter in the grand scheme of things, if we fast track players towards the first team via the 23s? Someone used Nicky Butt to make a point earlier about the importance of player development at u18 level and Nicky Butt was quite vocal in saying that results at this level didn't matter a great deal.

I don't think the u18s are gonna be as strong as they were last season. But I expected that and I'm sure we'll improve as the season progresses, because I'm expecting to see the likes of Kambwala, Hansen etc promoted to the 23s quickly rather than uphold the quality of the u18s, which isn't in the club's or players best interest when it comes to player development IMO.
 

themightyreds1983

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Put a few things straight here….

Firstly Liverpool started 9 of their 2nd years. Only Miles and Bajcetic are first year scholars. United started 3 u16’s, 4 first year scholars and 4 2nd years. This is a huge difference in physicality. When I saw the lineup I knew United was in for a hammering….

Admittedly this years intake of scholars from United is very weak. But today was always going to be a walkover for Liverpool.
 

khoazany

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I think the disjointment made them looks worse than they are. Most of the first years are new to this level, don’t forget that. Only Mainoo, Gore and Murray have somewhat significant exp and two of them were on the bench. Jackson did well at the back for a schoolboy and Mainoo was influential but pretty much carry the midfield by his own. Mather isn’t an AM, did better on the wing. I think the following games when we will have Odeyele, Mainoo and Gore in midfield we will look better.

I think the second years like Garnacho really need to step up and lead the team until the first years and the schoolboys are more settled.
 
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